Marijuana, Syria, federal spending and more

Pot prosecutions are a states’ matter

In response to “How to end the battle over marijuana” (Editorial, May 2): According to the U-T: “Washington, D.C., is where the battle over marijuana should be fought — not City Hall.” Note: I personally have never used marijuana, but have read the scientific evidence for its medical benefits. Many beneficial medicines can be abused, e.g., morphine, Ritalin, Tylenol with codeine, etc.; so why single out one in particular?

The only crimes covered by the U.S. Constitution are: Article I, Section 8 — “To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States”; “To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations”: and Article III, Section 3 — “The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason.” The Tenth Amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Traditionally criminal justice has been a state matter with the caveat of protections accorded by the Bill of Rights. Over the years the federal government has taken on ever more powers regarding criminal acts through application of the interstate commerce clause (Article I, Section 8).

To apply the interstate commerce clause something must cross state lines. I am neither a lawyer nor a constitutional scholar, but if marijuana is grown and sold within the state the interstate commerce clause should not apply! This should be a rallying cry for conservatives who champion states’ rights and for liberals who champion the rights of the individual. — Joel A. Harrison, San Diego

Who will serve?

In response to “U.S. moves toward arming rebels” (May 2): We know two things for certain about the neocon politicians and pundits who are now beginning to demand that the United States “take action” on Syria:

They will not tax themselves to pay for such “action.”

Their children will not fight in any combat that their demands lead to.

Vietnam. Iraq. Afghanistan. Syria? — Ron Bonn, Tierrasanta

Forgotten lessons

In response to “Obama’s ‘red line’ on Syria” (Editorial cartoon, May 1): Apparently, Steve Breen learned nothing from the Iraq War. A 10-year war with thousands of American lives lost, trillions of dollars wasted, with no discernible benefit to the United States, based on sketchy, incomplete (and ultimately false) intelligence. We don’t need a repeat of that in Syria.

If we intervene in Syria, will the Syrians rebels thank us the same way Osama bin Laden thanked us for helping him force the Russians out of Afghanistan? — Robert Russakoff, San Diego

Spending isn’t a solution

In response to “More federal spending can cure U.S. economic woes” (Opinion, May 2): Typical old-fashioned liberal garbage. We have spent trillions on simulating the economy and it hasn’t worked so what the reaction? Spend more.

In spite of Uncle Joe Biden saying we can spend our way out of debt, we can’t. We need another Calvin Coolidge who cut spending and taxes in half which unleashed the economic engine of this country and created the Roaring ’20s out of the deepest depression this country has ever seen, compliments of Woodrow Wilson. This filled the government coffers to overflowing which led to the progressive actions of the idiot Hoover, the allowed leveraging investments in the stock market creating the stock bubble which led to the Great Depression which was exacerbated by the Keynesian economics of FDR.